Joe Senser bashes media, Hennepin County attorney following court hearing for his wife

Amy Senser's husband, Joe Senser, speaks to his belief that Hennepin County attorney Mike Freeman was unfair to his wife in her hit-and-run trial, and that the local media neglected to do their job in telling Amy's story, after her hearing at the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, Monday, Sept. 24, 2012. (Pioneer Press: John Doman)

Amy Senser's husband, Joe Senser, speaks to his belief that Hennepin County attorney Mike Freeman was unfair to his wife in her hit-and-run trial, and that the local media neglected to do their job in telling Amy's story after her hearing at the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis. Monday, Sept. 24, 2012. (Pioneer Press: John Doman)

As Joe Senser himself said, "the circus continues."

The former Vikings tight end and husband of convicted hit-and-run killer Amy Senser used the opportunity of a news conference after a brief court hearing for his wife Monday, Sept. 24, to lambast her prosecutors, the media and, it would appear, even one of his own daughters.

Senser, who had a sometimes-prickly relationship with the media during his wife's trial earlier this year, said he was confident her legal appeal would succeed, and he hoped the state attorney general investigated Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman.

He claimed Freeman -- whom he referred to as "elected county attorney Freeman" -- had lied and had "manipulated" the legal process as well as public opinion of his wife of 23 years.

"Today is the day that I want to start leveling the playing field," Senser said. "I want all Minnesotans to know that at no time during this process did Amy Senser try to hide, did she try to get away with an accident that caused the death of Anousone Phanthavong on Aug. 23 (2011). It was a tragic accident, and I want all Minnesotans to know this."

The Minnesota State Patrol, Hennepin County prosecutors and, ultimately, a jury of 12 people saw the facts differently. Amy Senser was convicted in May of two counts of criminal vehicular homicide in the hit-and-run death of Phanthavong, a noted Minneapolis chef.

Senser is serving a 41-month sentence. Her attorney has filed a notice of appeal, and Monday's hearing involved his attempts to get her freed while the appeal is decided.

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Joe Senser, 56, who now manages a couple of restaurants that bear his name, wouldn't take questions after his news conference.

Among the questions he walked away from: Why would a man who called himself "a big law-and-order guy" not call the police after discovering his badly damaged vehicle had probably been involved in a fatal crash?

Freeman declined comment on the remarks.

Legally, the hearing that preceded Joe Senser's discourse was to determine whether his wife could be free while appealing her case.

Amy Senser (Photo courtesy to the Pioneer Press)

The Minnesota Court of Appeals told Hennepin County District Judge Daniel Mabley that he shouldn't have summarily denied her request to be freed.

In a hearing that lasted nine minutes, Mabley heard brief arguments from Senser's lawyer, Eric Nelson, as well as from Senior Assistant County Attorney Lee Barry. The judge said he'd consider the matter and rule by the end of the week.

Amy Senser was dressed in prison-issue dungarees and a gray T-shirt, covered by a two-sizes-too-big dark gray T-shirt. She wore glasses; during the trial, she'd worn contacts.

She smiled and nodded to family members in the courtroom.

Joe Senser stayed for only the first few minutes of the hearing and then walked out. But afterward in the Hennepin County Government Center's large and airy atrium, he spoke as video cameras filmed and still cameras clicked.

The sometimes-rambling diatribe lasted 16 minutes. He displayed anger, frustration, touching emotion and taunted Freeman and the media. He said he was speaking because "our family has not had an opportunity to speak at all."

"Today was just another indication of what I believe is a process gone wrong," he said, launching into a criticism of Freeman.

He then apologized to the Vikings, the team he played for from 1980 to 1984. He said that even though he hadn't been with the organization since July 1985, "you cannot find a story that does not mention she is married to a former player. Ladies and gentlemen, I've been a lot of former things."

"This information gets splashed on a great organization, and I want to apologize to them," he said, adding he wanted the media to stop mentioning his former relationship to the team in articles.

"So let's just see where that goes from here," he said.

He then launched into a defense of his wife, offering talking points that were at times contradicted by facts that came out during her trial.

Freeman, he said, "would like you to believe that Amy Senser waited 10 days before she came forward after that accident. Nothing could be further from the truth."

According to the testimony of both Sensers, they realized the morning after the crash that it might have been involved in a fatal incident involving Phanthavong that they'd seen on the news.

Amy Senser's husband, Joe Senser, speaks to his belief that Hennepin County attorney Mike Freeman was unfair to his wife in her hit-and-run trial, and to the local media who neglected to do their job in telling Amy's story, after her hearing at the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, Monday, Sept. 24, 2012. (Pioneer Press: John Doman)

Despite this realization, neither called police. Instead, they called a lawyer, who turned the damaged Mercedes SUV over to the State Patrol nearly 24 hours after the crash. The Sensers were not home at the time; the couple had decided to take their two daughters on a spur-of-the-moment overnight trip to Stillwater.

They wouldn't say who had been driving the vehicle, though. Investigators sought to question them but they wouldn't talk, although they did turn over cellphone and credit card records.

Ten days after the crash -- after one of Joe Senser's daughters by his first marriage threatened to go to police -- Senser's lawyer gave the State Patrol a brief statement acknowledging she'd been driving.

Joe Senser said Freeman knew early on of Amy Senser's involvement but chose not to question her so her silence could be used against her.

"At any time, the law could've taken Amy Senser, any member of our family into questioning. They chose not to," he said.

He said that instead, Freeman's office sought to paint the picture of an intoxicated Amy Senser hitting Phanthavong, who was standing next to his car, which had run out of gas on the Riverside Avenue exit ramp from westbound Interstate 94.

"He wanted you to believe that she was intoxicated that night, that Amy Senser left the scene of that accident, knew she had hit someone, and knew she was intoxicated," Senser said.

"Next to child molestation or hurting a child, there isn't an emotion more demeaning than drunk driving or someone who is driving impaired," he said. "Everybody has an opinion on that issue. Before this trial started, he (Freeman) was able to manipulate this process that allowed for that conviction."

Testifying in her own defense, Amy Senser denied she was intoxicated but did admit to drinking "part" of a glass of wine two hours before the crash. Assistant County Attorney Deborah Russell had presented as a witness another motorist who claimed to have seen a woman matching Amy Senser's appearance driving erratically on the interstate after the crash.

Freeman's office "dehumanized Amy Senser and made her public enemy No. 1 before any evidence was brought forward," Joe Senser said.

He said Freeman had threatened his family. "If I sound upset, it's only because if anybody that knows me knows that if you want to get the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up, start threatening my family, and that's what elected county attorney Freeman did when he lied about Amy Senser to the public. He wanted you to believe something other than the truth, and this has to be told."

He spoke of his wife's good qualities, including stopping the car to care for injured animals or helping the poor. She had participated in a faith-based group that aided the poor in Peru.

"Does that sound like somebody who would run away from her responsibilities? No," he said.

"As horrible as it is that Amy Senser should be held responsible for that accident, what's even more egregious is that I don't know friend from foe when I walk around anymore," he said. "I don't know who's going to seek revenge from all those threats that we've received, including Brittani Senser."

He did not elaborate.

Brittani Senser, a would-be pop star, is one of Joe Senser's two daughters by his first marriage. As a witness for the prosecution, she testified that she told Nelson that if he didn't go to the police and tell them that Amy Senser had been driving the vehicle, then she would.

According to the State Patrol report, Brittani Senser told investigators her stepmother had a drinking problem, was going through a midlife crisis and that she "has been involved with other men."

She told the investigators that the woman "has been out of control as of late," according to the report. She claimed her father had confided his concerns about Amy's drinking and "her involvement with other men."

"She said when she first heard of Amy being involved in this situation, she thought Amy must have been out with another guy," trooper John Farmakes wrote in his investigative report.

Joe Senser said his wife was not the person that Russell -- who he repeatedly referred to as "complicit Russell" -- portrayed to the jury.

"I want you to know that Amy Senser is not the individual that complicit Russell bastardized in that courtroom. She is exactly opposite," he said.

"They tried to paint Amy Senser as being this rich white Edina housewife. Nothing could be further from the truth," he said. "She gives to others first. But yet complicit Russell made it look like ... she was irresponsible and turned what I said about Amy World as being as good and loving and decent and caring and putting others first into this irresponsible woman who's a rich white housewife."

During his turn on the witness stand, Joe Senser had told jurors about a concept he labeled "Amy World" and said it was a description of his wife's carefree and sometimes-mercurial approach to life. He described it in loving terms.

But in her cross-examination of Senser and in her final arguments, Russell portrayed "Amy World" as a place where the defendant acted on a whim, often without consequences.

He said that from now on, the family would speak only through KARE 11 reporter Jana Shortal.

"I'm asking you as reporters, as journalists, to do your job. That's what I'm asking," he told reporters.